2.06.2015

Japanese mobile game company Cybird cooperates with LOTTERIA of the fast food chain in their mobile dating sim series "Ikemen series". (Ikemen means hot handsome guys in Japanese slang)

Cybird is one of main dating sim developers of Japan, and releases mobile dating sim of various situation for women in Ikemen series.

In this tie-up, the set menu which cooperated with the Ikemen series in each store of LOTTERIA is sold.

The contents of the set menu are French fries and tea, and the price is 500 yen. You may think this to be very expensive. However...

The game character card is attached to this set menu.

Serial number is placed in the backside of the card and players can get virtual goods by inputting it in a game. In other words, this price includes virtual goods.

By the way, my card was "Ikemen bakumatsu Unmei No Koi(イケメン幕末◆運命の恋)". This is dating sim loving pro-imperial nationalists and revolutionists(維新志士:Ishin shishi) in the Bakumatsu era(幕末時代: The final years of the Edo period See wikipedia). Its times setting is 1853~1867, but my avatar has French fries of LOTTERIA. It's really funny! :)

3D printer company bonsai lab announced new 3D printer BS TOY that focused on the toy market, and it was displayed in Trend Gallery that introduce trends of 2015 in German toy show Spielwarenmesse.

BS TOY is a cube type of 20 centimeters×3 and weight is 2 kilograms. Corners are round, and a design considered in safety so that children can use it. Molding size is 13×12.5×10(cm). They aim at the release of the end of this year.

In addition, they developed herewith new filament "LT80(Low Temperature)" in cooperation with Polymakr. The temperature necessary for the molding of this is only 80 degrees Celsius, and the finish is a soft flexible type. Furthermore, this is made with the materials which FDA of U.S. authorizes, and considered environment because this is Biodegradability. Now, the color variations of this clear only, but they will release various colors in future now.

A certain Japanese developer made a newer work. Next is Yo-kai cat "Jibanyan(ジバニャン)" from Japanese popular game/anime Yo-kai Watch(妖怪ウォッチ).

Yo-Kai Watch is a series of role-playing games for Nintendo 3DS developed and published by Level-5. It is transmedia storytelling content, and their anime, manga, toys, various goods etc... every product are selling like hot cakes. It is right Pokemon(Nintendo) killer. (via wikipedia)

Jibanyan lives in the room of the Japanese primary schoolchild Keita. However, the common people cannot look at him because Jibanyan is Yo-kai(妖怪: supernatural creatures in Japanese folklore), so Keita looks at them using special gadget Yo-Kai Watch. You would already notice, this is good to AR/VR contents!

The developer put Oculus Rift and PTAM together and realized more real expression. It is really cute!

1.26.2015

Crappy Photoshops of ISIS by Japanese Twitter users are scattered all over the world, and they started a newer project. This is "personifies" - proud skill of Japanese.

Anonymous Japanese netizens personified ISIS as cute girl "ISIS-chan" ("chan" is nickname expression in Japan). They make her profile and show it in Tumblr. Some illustration works have been shared here already.

This is not the first time that Japanese netizens personified threats and booing as cute girls. In 2010, large-scale anti-Japan demonstration broke out in China, the anti-Japan sentiment of Chinese people increased and they shouted "Riben guizi(日本鬼子)" of Chinese racial term since World War II("Riben guizi" means "Japanese devil" in Chinese). However, a project of personify this as cute girls in Japanese textboard 2channel started. Japanese netizens chose to transform the racial and offensive term into a "Moe(萌え)" character.

Then the image search results of "Riben guizi(日本鬼子)" in Chinese major search service Baidu(百度) happened.

Where are images of Imperial Japanese soldiers and the anti-Japan demonstration? :D The Chinese government judged this to be a serious problem, strengthened the censorship by the great firewall(金盾) and prohibited the image search of Riben guizi(日本鬼子) in Baidu(百度). In other words, Chinese people were not able to search even Riben guizi as racial term, too.

The ISIS personification project aims at this again. If crappy images and cute girls were displayed on screen when youths searched ISIS, at least they may not think to join ISIS. We must upset WW(World War) and make MM(Moe Moe).
Of course the people except the Japanese can participate in this project, too. However it is necessary to note this rule.

The silly is stronger than the terrorism. Let's jump onto a bandwagon of ‪#‎ISISクソコラグランプリ‬(Crappy Photoshop Grand Prix)!

1.12.2015

On January 17, 2015, Japan is the 20th year from Great Hanshin earthquake(Kobe earthquake). It's magnitude 7.3, occurred on January 17, 1995, at 05:46 JST in the southern part of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and 6,400 people died by a collapse building and a fire.

Then for 20 years, current Kobe is this.

Therefore Japanese Ingress players drew phoenix on Kobe on the map in commemoration of this. The phoenix is right a symbol of the revival.

This is not the first time that Japanese Ingress players expressed prayer through a game. They prayed for peace in Hiroshima on August 6, 2014 and drew a crane of origami.

Shironeko VR Project was developed based on their popular mobile RPG "Shironeko Project(白猫プロジェクト)". It's released in July, 2014 and passes 20 million downloading in Japan. In addition, it was released in Korea in October, 2014 and released in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao in future.

Shironeko Project is a full-fledged RPG of full 3DCG. Players can bring up a character and enjoy powerful battle with huge enemies. Colopl released the controller apps "colopad" for VR games to experience this comfortably in Oculus Rift. This is controller apps to use a smartphone and a tablet as a game pad. Players can operate the action such as move and attack with one finger by using this. They have yet released only an Android version of this, but release the iOS version in a few days.

Originally Colopl was the startup which developed geolocation social game for Japanese futurephones. However, they are VR game companies as well as a representative mobile game company for smartphones now.

Unfortunately the presence of Nintendo gradually fades in Japan. One of the causes is the prosperity of the mobile game business, but surprising press release was announced. GungHo releases a game for the Nintendo 3DS series "PUZZLE & DRAGONS SUPER MARIO BROS. EDITION" that combined the Mario series of Nintendo with Puzzle &Dragons on April 29. The price is 4,000 yen(about 33.3USD).

Needless to say, Puzzle & Dragons is a popular mobile game of GungHo, passes 33 million downloading in Japan, and passed 6 million downloading in the North America in this month, too. This collaboration is "bitter enemies in the same boat" for Nintendo.

Stages of the games is the mushroom kingdom which is the world of the Mario series. Mysterious "drop" with mysterious power appeared in the mushroom kingdom suddenly, bowser(Great Demon King Koopa) and other Mario's enemies get it and do evil, and Mario Bros. and their friends do the adventure of the puzzle battle to fight against them. According to the screenshot, its rule of game seems to be same as Puzzle & Dragons. However, an outlook on the world is Mario series itself. It is unknown whether this is sold in countries except Japan.

1.09.2015

Shōgatsu(正月: Japanese New Year festival) is one of the most important event in Japan. Therefore Supercell carried out Japan's original promotion "Hay Day O-mikuji" from January 1.

O-mikuji(おみくじ) are random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines(via Wikipedia). Supercell opened a time-limited special site until January 18 emulating this and let players draw Hay Day O-mikuji.

Fortunes of this year, characters and items of Hay Day are drawn on each O-mikuji, and players can tweet them to Twitter. Furthermore, players can apply for a present campaign from this site. If we lucky, we can get various Hay Day goods :)

Why did Supercell do such a promotion? Probably because, in The twelve branches(十二支), this year is "the year of the sheep" (What is the twelve branches? via Wikipedia). Players can keep sheep in Hay Day. By the way, next year is "the year of the monkey". Are the monkeys added to Hay Day until the next year?